424
LIFE
AND
VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK X V I I .
treasure. They all set out in high spirits, eager who should first reach the golden land ; thinking they had but to arrive at the mines, and collect riches ; “ for they fancied,” says Las Casas, “" that gold was to be gathered as easily and readily as fruit from the trees.” When they arrived, however, they discovered, to their dismay, that it was necessary to dig painfully into the bowels of the earth—a labor to which most of them had never been accustomed ; that it required experience and sagacity to detect the veins of ore ; that, in fact, the whole process of mining was exceedingly toilsome, demanded vast patience and much experi ence, and, after all, was full of uncertainty. They digged eagerly for a time, but found no ore. They grew hungry, threw by their implements, sat down to eat, and then returned to work. It was all in vain. “ Their labor,” says Las Casas, “ gave them a keen appetite and quick digestion, but no gold." They soon consumed their provisions, exhausted their patience, cursed their infatuation, and in eight days set off drearily on their return along the roads they had lately trod so exultingly. They arrived at San Domingo without an ounce of gold, half-famished, downcast, and despair ing.* Such is too often the case of those who ignorantly engage in mining—of all speculations the most brilliant, promising, and fallacious. Poverty soon fell upon these misguided men. They exhausted the little property brought from Spain. Many suffered extremely from hunger, and were obliged to exchange even their apparel for bread. Some formed connections with the old settlers of the island ; but the greater part were like men lost and bewildered, and just awakened from a dream. The miseries of the mind, as usual, heightened the sufferings of the body. Some wasted away * Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 6.